Florida
Are there monkeys in Florida? Videos show sightings in this part of the state
Gators, bobcats and now monkeys! Central Florida sees new guests.
Wild monkeys have been spotted in central Florida neighborhoods.
Alligators in the kitchen? We’re used to it. Shark attacks? No problem. 17-foot Burmese python? Big deal.
Wild monkeys scampering over your roof and walking through your neighborhood? Some Floridians are coming to terms with it, especially during recent sightings in Central Florida’s Groveland and Clermont shared on social media.
“I was picking up my daughter from school at South Lake High School in Groveland and then I saw this animal walking in the sidewalk,” caterer Naxel Miranda of Miranda’s Kitchen told The Daily Commercial. “I thought was a cat or something like that because I’m not used to seeing monkeys in Florida, but when I get closer was a monkey and that’s when I took my phone out and start recording the video.”
Florida residents have seen the primates monkeying around for years. One wild monkey captivated locals as it roamed around Orange City for weeks last August. Monkey sightings popped up in St. Johns, Putnam and Duval counties in 2020. Several of them charged a family at Silver Springs State Park in 2017. There have been 236 reports of them since 1959, with most of them between 2007 and November 2023, according to Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) reports and tracking by the University of Georgia.
The creatures are likely rhesus macaque monkeys, primate expert Linda Wasko, president of Primate Paradise in Osteen, told FOX 35, possibly descendants of the first six brought to Florida by a man hoping to jazz up his jungle boat tour in the 1930s.
What are rhesus macaque monkeys?
Rhesus macaque monkeys are one of two monkey species that have been established and are reproducing in Florida, the other being vervet monkeys.
They are native to Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Southeast Asia and China, but were introduced to Florida by a cruise operator named Colonel Tooey, according to a post by the Wildlife Ecology and Conservation Department, UF/IFAS Extension. He let them loose on a small island in the Silver River, but rhesus macaque monkeys are very good swimmers and struck out on their own almost immediately. Since then the monkey population in the area has increased dramatically.
Nearly 1,400 rhesus macaques were brought to the Florida Keys by a laboratory animal breeding company in the 1970s but they were ordered removed in 1997 after they destroyed 30 acres of mangroves. A third set of them were brought in by an amusement park called Tropical Wonderland in Titusville and they either escaped or were released when the park closed in 1976. The FWC planned to trap the 35-75 monkeys reported roaming the area but it is unclear how effective this was.
Rhesus macaque population growth in Florida was reduced from 1984 to 2012 when about 1,000 monkeys were trapped and removed, but this became controversial due to the monkeys being killed or given to testing facilities and was halted.
Adults are brown to gray with pink faces, the FWC said, and mostly herbivorous although they will eat insects and bird eggs. Males can roam for miles.
Are rhesus macaque monkeys dangerous?
Monkeys that have been fed can become territorial and more aggressive.
Wild animals also can carry diseases that can be fatal to humans such as rabies, hepatitis B and B herpes, officials from the FWC and the Centers for Disease Prevention (CDC) said.
“B virus infection is extremely rare, but it can lead to severe brain damage or death if you do not get treatment immediately,” the Centers for Disease Prevention (CDC) said. “People typically get infected with B virus if they are bitten or scratched by an infected macaque monkey, or have contact with the monkey’s eyes, nose, or mouth.”
If you are bitten or scratched by a wild monkey, immediately wash the wound and seek medical attention according to CDC guidelines.
More monkeys coming? Panhandle residents worry about nearby facility that would breed, house up to 30,000 monkeys
Can I feed wild monkeys?
Feeding wild monkeys is a second-degree misdemeanor in Florida that can carry up to 60 days in jail and a $500 fine if convicted, according to a 2018 prohibition from the FWC.
The FWC advises residents to avoid them when spotted and do not offer food. Keep pets on a leash and watch small children, and dispose of uneaten food and garbage in closed trash containers.
“The biggest message we’d like residents to heed is that it could be very dangerous,” Orange City police Lt. Sherif El-Shami said in 2023. “Don’t feed it. Don’t pet it. It’s not your average animal at the zoo.”
What should I do if I see a rhesus macaque monkey?
Wild monkeys are common enough in some areas that the FWC asks that you report them only if you see them outside their core population area in Marion County. To report a monkey sighting:
- Try to take a picture or video
- Note the location
- Call the FWC’s Exotic Species Hotline at 888-IveGot1 (888-483-4681).
If you see a wild monkey posing an imminent threat to humans, call 911 or the FWC’s Wildlife Alert Hotline at 888-404FWCC (888-404-3922).
Florida
Florida college Republicans group chat reveals racist texts: ‘Avoid the coloreds like the plague’
It only took three weeks for a group chat for conservative students at Florida International University (FIU) to become a place where participants eagerly used racist slurs, prompting widespread condemnation from community leaders.
Abel Alexander Carvajal, secretary of Miami-Dade county’s Republican party and a student at FIU’s College of Law, reportedly started the chat after the killing of Charlie Kirk, the founder of Turning Point USA, in September 2025.
But on Wednesday, the Miami Herald published leaked WhatsApp conversations in which the college Republicans made racist, sexist, antisemitic and homophobic comments, including variations of the N-word used more than 400 times. Knowledge of the chat’s existence was revealed on the same day that Republican lawmakers in Florida pushed forward a bill to rename a one-mile stretch of road alongside FIU in honor of Kirk.
William Bejerano, who the Herald noted once tried to start an anti-abortion group at Miami Dade College, was the most prolific user of the N-word. Using the slur, Bejerano called for dozens of acts of extreme violence against Black people, including crucifying, beheading and dissecting.
Dariel Gonzalez, then the College Republicans’ recruitment chair, who has recently applied to become a GOP committee member, responded to the calls for violence by saying: “How edgy.” He repeatedly used “colored” to describe Black people, including writing: “Ew you had colored professors?!” and “Avoid the coloreds like the plague,” according to the Herald.
Carvajal, who was appointed to a two-year role on the city of Hialeah’s planning and zoning board earlier this year, confirmed to the paper that the group chat was his doing, but he denied knowledge of the problematic comments until the publication contacted him about its logs last week.
“It’s been five months since this was sent and this is the first time I’ve seen this message,” Carvajal told the Herald.
“I guess to an extent, I bear some responsibility, cause I created a chat. But if I had seen this at the moment, I would have removed [Bejerano] from the chat. I probably would have even blocked his number.”
The Herald found that Carvajal had deleted 14 messages sent by other participants in the chat and 42 of his own messages before the publication obtained the chat’s logs.
He also participated in some of the racist discussions. While referring to a Black student who allegedly left FIU’s College Republicans after a member of the group “called her a [N-word]”, the Floridian reported that Carvajal wrote: “Why didn’t miggress leave?” Elsewhere in the chat, the publication reported that Carvajal used “Miggress”, “Migglet” and “Migger” to refer to Black women, Black children and Black people, in general.
At one point, Gonzalez wrote: “You can fuck all the [K-word, a slur for Jewish people] you want. Just don’t marry them and procreate.”
Ian Valdes, the Turning Point USA FIU chapter president, responded, “I would def not marry a Jew,” before changing the group chat’s name from “Uber [R-word slur for disabled people] Yapping” to “Gooning in Agartha”. “Gooning” is a gen-Z slang term for male masturbation, while “Agartha” is a mythical white civilization promoted by Heinrich Himmler, one of the most powerful leaders in Nazi Germany next to Hitler.
Gonzalez reportedly described Agartha to the group chat as “Nazi heaven sort of”.
Kevin Cooper, the first Jewish chair of the Miami Dade Republican party, condemned the group chat in a statement published to X and called for Carvajal’s resignation.
“The majority of our board voted to request Carvajal’s resignation. We have commenced removal proceedings and look forward to resolution from the Republican Party of Florida,” he wrote.
That call was echoed by Juan Porras, a Republican state representative and Miami-Dade GOP state committee member, who said in a statement: “Leadership carries responsibility. When someone in a leadership role engages in this kind of behavior, it damages the trust placed in our party by voters across Florida. For that reason, I am asking the Miami Dade Republican party secretary to step down from this position.”
In a joint statement, Florida Republican state senators Alexis Calatayud, Ileana Garcia and Ana Maria Rodriguez denounced the chats and called for the expulsion from party leadership of its participants.
“The individuals in the group chat have exposed how profoundly misaligned their beliefs are to the views of the Republican party of Florida,” their statement said. “We call for the immediate expulsion of the individuals disseminating from any level of leadership of the Miami-Dade Republican Party … We will not tolerate bigotry or discrimination.”
Multiple leaked group chats from young Republicans have created controversy in recent years.
Last year, Politico published messages from a group chat of more than 100 conservatives across the country in which users also made racist and antisemitic comments. In 2022, a Young Republican group chat from North Dakota was revealed as a cesspool of homophobic and antisemitic rhetoric.
Florida
Federal judge blocks DeSantis executive order declaring CAIR a 'terrorist organization'
Florida
Gas prices rise in South Florida amid U.S. and Israel’s conflict with Iran, as the stock market also reports a dip
Four days into the Iranian conflict, gas prices are rising at many stations in South Florida.
“I’ve traveled all over the United States,” says Stacey Williams. CBS Miami spoke to him as he was gassing up on the turnpike. He paid $66 for 20 gallons of diesel to fill his pickup truck. Williams has noted the fluctuations in fuel as he drives to locations for his work on turbines. He just spent three weeks at the Turkey Point Nuclear Power Plant south of Miami.
“The salary we get paid per hour does not add up to what we pay for gas, housing, and food,” he says.
Mitchell Gershon is also dealing with the higher gas prices. He has to fill three vehicles constantly for his business—Thrifty Gypsy, a pop-up store at musical venues. He’s back and forth from Orlando to Miami and says fuel is costing him 20% more. When asked how he handles these fluctuations, he said, “Have a little backup cash so you are ready for it.”
The rise in oil prices contributed to a drop in the stock market on Tuesday, which means some retirement accounts dipped, too. CBS Miami talked to Chad NeSmith, director of investments at Tobias Financial Advisors in Plantation, for perspective on the drop.
“We are seeing most of the pullback today. Yesterday was a shock,” he says. He’s not expecting runaway oil prices but says investors should stay in the loop: “Pay attention to your portfolio. Stick to your goals. Have a plan because these things are completely unpredictable.”
That unpredictability has Williams adjusting his budget. “You just cut back, cut corners, all you can do,” he says.
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